Essay on The Tragedy of Leila in Bone

In the summer of 1855, a slave named Celia committed a crime that would test the laws and precedents placed on slaves in Missouri during this time period. Celia was only fourteen when purchased by a slave owner, Robert Newsom in 1850. Five years after being purchased, she murdered her owner in self-defense because he tried to rape her. Throughout the 1800’s, slaves had few rights, if any at all. Celia, A Slave brings up many questions about these rights because of the controversy surrounding a black woman and her white owner. Many of these questions were also sparked because of the brutal crime Celia committed.

In the book titled Celia, a Slave, written by Melton A. McLaurin, the story of a young slave woman is narrated. Celia had been bought at the age of fourteen by a male slaveholder named Robert Newsom. Newsom purchased Celia with the intention to “purchase a replacement for his wife” (18). Newsom’s wife had passed away a few years earlier, so “he required a sexual partner” (18). Throughout her stay at the Newsom household, Robert Newsom consistently raped and sexually exploited Celia. Celia’s lover, George, gave her an ultimatum saying that if she did not stop having intercourse with Newsom, George would leave her. Stricken with anxiety over possibly losing her lover and determined to stop Newsom’s behavior, Celia beat Newsom to death and burned his body in the fireplace. Celia went to trial, was convicted guilty for the murder of Robert Newsom, and was sentenced to death. Celia, being both a woman and a slave, had to endure twice the amount of hardships in an era controlled by “the sexual politics of slavery,” which was characterized by the exploitation of slaves both financially and sexually, unfair power dynamics, and little legal recourse.

In the trilogy Oresteia, the issues concerned are the transformation from vengeance to law, from chaos to peace, from dependence to independence, and from old to new. These four significant changes all take place throughout the play and are somewhat parallel to the transformations that were going on in Ancient Greece.

period. The book Celia a Slave is a factual interpretation of an isolated incident that depicted

He eventually cracked and gave up valuable information on the whereabouts of Celia, and she was later captured. Celia was provided with a lawyer, which was another important situation. A young hot shot with aspirations of protecting her, this was a perfect lawyer for Celia. However, she was

In the book Celia, A Slave written by Melton A. McLaurin’s was an analysis of the trial and execution of Celia, a slave in Callaway County, Missouri who kills her master and burns his body in her fireplace. The initial argument is that Celia’s case offers important insights into how enslaved women were completely powerless to protect themselves from sexual abuse, and how the moral ambiguity caused by slavery is often reconciled in the courts, whose rulings alleviate white Southerners’ crisis of conscience when confronted with the “hard daily realities of slavery”.

Fae Myenne Ng is a contemporary Chinese-American author who is known for her first written novel, Bone. Her debut novel was published in 1993 and the story is told through the eyes of the main character, Leila Leong. Leila tells the story of her family’s history and the events that unfold following the suicide of her sister. As Leila’s story progresses, themes of identity and family life are revealed. Leila and her two sisters border the line between American and Chinese, two distinct cultures that belong to very different worlds. The sisters deal with the struggles of assimilation as they grow up in the seclusive community of Chinatown only to live in an American world. The family life of the Leong

   In Bone, by Fae Myenne Ng, the character Ona Leong grows up in a Chinese-American family in San Francisco. Ona shared her home with two sisters that are extreme opposites, a mother who works in sweatshops and a father who works out at sea for long periods. Ona grew up loving every member of her family and each one of them believed that she was on the road to success. But on a day like any other, Ona commits suicide by jumping off of the thirteenth floor of the Nam building. Without any warning of her unhappiness, the family finds themselves only being able to guess as to why she would do such a thing. How did Ona express her unhappiness? And how does Ona's choice of suicide affect loved ones?

Melton McLaurin vividly describes the life of a sexually abused slave who fought back in the non-fictional memoir titled Celia, A Slave. As the story began, the 1800s were impassioned with one civil disagreement between two sides of the United States—whether the nation should legally end or perpetuate human enslavement (16). Slavery was particularly and heavily supported by the citizens of the Calloway County, the home of Robert Newsom (19). The proof of increased crop production through slave labor convinced Newsom to begin his investment in black slaves (20). Having an increased number of farmhands allowed Newsom more time for relaxation and a higher social status. Soon, after understanding the ease of obtaining human property, Newsom

Celia, a Slave is the epitome of the relationship between slaves and their owners and also the slaves and other whites in the 1850’s. This is based on her interactions with her owner Robert Newsom and her reactions mainly with the community involved in her court case. These relationships affected more so the women slaves rather than the men slaves because of their weaker nature as perceived by the sexual differences of the time period between men and women in general. Slavery is questioned by the morals of the Northerners and some Southerners though it is common in the South so most Southerners reinforce the ideas of slavery with their own morals, believing slaves as meaningless because of their difference.

The book “Celia A Slave” starts off with mainly a young black girl named Celia. She get sold in a slave auction to a man named Robert Newsom. This man continually rapes Celia who gets pregnant with his child and gives birth to the child. The sad part is that the child she just had would grow up to be her father’s property later in her life. Then it changes when one day Mr. Newsom attempted to rape Celia again when she accidentally killed him. She then cuts him up and burns his body and attempts to get rid of all the evidence. She ends up be caught and has to go through the legal system to decide if she is guilty or innocent. Celia pleas that it was self-defense which was legal at the time women to kill if their life was in danger but she was a slave and those rules didn’t apply to her. Even thought there were laws to protect women and slave the Judges usually didn’t listen to black women and just did what they thought was right in their case. The judge was also a racist and would not move her execution date back so that they could figure out if Celia was guilty or not but he declined that and left it the same. People end up kidnaping Celia before her date to hang but these efforts didn’t work for long. Celia later ends up being convicted for murder and is sentenced to death. It was never a fair trial in the first place with all the racism in America at the time. It was a long shot that she would

As Lamort grows up she is blamed for the death of her mother. The death of her mother influence is to the present of Lamort's life because she seeks or more so look for forgiveness or more do approval from her grandma. In result of her seeking for forgiveness she tries to meet her grandmother's standards. No matter what it was she did it just to please her grandmother.

For instance, within the primary dysfunctional family, many relationships are developed, which include two unbearable children, a power hungry dad, a hectic wife tending to her baby, and an unendurable grandmother. These relationships bring out other dynamics within the characters and the family (Lambert 2009). For instance, although both the father and grandmother are strict in ensuring that the children be respectful, on their part, they do not set an example that can be emulated within the family. First, the grandmother advises her grandchildren to be respectful, and then she goes ahead, making a profane racially prejudiced remark almost immediately (McCann, Jr 2011). At the same time, the head of the family—the father of the children, Bailey, requests the children to conduct themselves accordingly. However, confronted by a tense situation, Bailey loses his temper and threatens the family telling them that if they did not shut up, they would not go anywhere (Katharina 4).

Lucy is seen having only one friend throughout the film, a frail, lanky young man named Birdman. Both lacking the will for social engagement find comfort in one another’s presence. Despite her not being interested in Birdman’s romantic advances, Lucy is able to show some of her masked emotion in his presence. One day, in a light mannerism, she asks Birdman to marry her. He, knowing the offer contains no serious commitment, laughingly agrees. However, he is with his own vices. On a seemingly normal visit, Lucy walks in on Birdman overdosed. He lies in bed waiting for death to approach and whisk him away eternally. Lucy is present through his last moments, weeping in his arms, but does not call the authorities to notify of his death. Two weeks later, at the funeral, Lucy engages in conversations with one of her former boyfriends. Similarly, Lucy asks him to marry her as well, however, his reaction is in stark contrast to that of Birdman. He is a bag of mixed emotions; sour, taken aback, and frustrated at the simplest. This is one of the few short glimpses into her past life. Not letting

Upon meeting Luticia, a 42- year- old female, who is currently unemployed in Forks, Washington and has never been to therapy or sought treatment, I sensed that she was a bit different considering she was wearing layers of black leather, even though it was mid- August, and smelled strongly of sunscreen. Before our session began I opened with a joke, “Oh, is someone afraid of a bit of sun?” She responded that she needed to be. Unsure of what she meant by this I asked her why she needed to fear the sun. She replied with an answer that I did not expect. Luticia provided me with an elaborate story that years ago she has chosen to release her soul in order to become her vampire self with the consequence that if she does not lather in sunscreen daily she will blister. I followed up with asking her when and why she chose to make this transition. She claimed that she already knew that something innately made her better than the rest of her species so when she was “allowed to see the truth” that would awaken the vampire that she truly was, which was about twenty years ago, she was more than glad to release her soul. She claimed that in order to do this she had to claw her soul out of herself (this left visible scars on her abdomen that she showed me) to become even better and to further enhance her powers. I proceeded to ask her what type of powers she possessed. Luticia insisted that she had prophetic dreams and knew how to perform a bunch of other rituals. After hearing how Luticia